The sun is almost at the top of the sky. The sun light didn’t reach their skin as they were covered inside the wagon –the heat however, still made them sweating. Meanwhile, their wagon is bouncing around because of the contour of the road. After all, it’s a dirt road.

  “Thanks again for letting us join you in your travel,” said Vane after taking a few sips of water.

  “No problem. Remember to pay me back later,” Mia responded.

  “Will do.”

  After that short exchange, he looked at Jean. “Are you sure you are not coming with me?”

  “Naw man. I think it would be for the best if I follow her, learn a thing or two so I can equip myself.”

  Vane nod in understanding. He hoped to be able party up with someone he knows. However, he understood that Jean can be adventurous. Unlike himself who need a reason to go somewhere, Jean can end up in various places. It’s like he has intuition on where to go.

  The sun is now slipped away for a bit. The wagon is still rolling on the bumpy dirt road. Seems like Mia has taken an interest at Danith. The both of them were talking mostly about Danith. Of course, Danith couldn’t reveal that she was an elf. After all, there are three people in this wagon she couldn’t trust. She instead claimed as Dane, an adventurer who is partnered with Vane to a subjugation mission in the Great Juva Forest.

  With how the Great Juva Forest bordered with Demon Lord’s territory, there are a few rabid monster going south, attacking another adventurer who is there to hunt monster –and slave too.

  While this was just an excuse, the mission was actually posted in the adventurer guild. Vane saw it the other day when he was touring around the city and thought it would be great if they have somekind of excuse when going out. He was thinking to actually took the mission as being an adventurer would also be a good source of money.

  However, he ended up not taking it as right now he is working with an elves so he don’t want to draw any attention to him. He was luckily able to get on a wagon alongside Mia and Jean so he didn’t need to take that mission to get out of town. He still use it as an excuse to them anyway.

  “Hey, you got such a mysterious girl. Mind if you introduce me to her?” Jean called out to Vane.

  “Do it yourself. Though, she isn’t an approachable type as you can see.”

  “Too bad. You probably won’t touch her since you are so stuck with Aurel.” Jean sighed in defeat.

  “Why is it always about touching woman with you? You aren’t even drunk.” Vane complained at Jean’s remarks. It reminds him at the time when they were at party and Jean go recommending all kinds of women to him.

  “Even if it’s not, are you sure you can still be with Aurel? Like, she’s on a different level now… quite literally.”

  Vane didn’t respond instantly. He just didn’t have any answer to it. The only thing he think about her is, I miss her. “I just can’t let go of her yet. It’s not like she died. She is there in front of my eyes. Our eyes.”

  “I don’t know man,” Jean disagreed. “Maybe you still can. Maybe not. I don’t know. I don’t know why we even here in the first place. Why we were lined up with nine or ten other people to be chosen to be transported.”

  It was the same thing Vane mull over in the room. “Did you able to see people in that hall? I was only able to spot Azel and Tom. The rest seems to be no one I know.”

  “I also spot Fairuz. For the rest, they do seem to be strangers.”

  “Fairuz too? I hope she is fine in this world.”

  “She should be fine. She is always the brightest of us.”

  “Hope so too.”

  The sun is finally setting in. The sky turned red before finally the dark enveloped the world. Lucky, they were able to reach wagon’s checkpoint. It was a cottage built at a certain point of their journey because that’s where the wagon usually reach at the sunset.

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  With that said, they still have to protect themselves. According to the coachman, it was once burned down when a group of goblins attacked the cottage. Meaning, they still have to do night watch.

  Vane suggested that Jean have to go first because he is bad at waking up in the middle of the night but really good at staying awake. Mia nodded in agreement. So, Jean and Mia volunteered themselves to watch in the first shift, followed by Vane and Danith.

  He woke up on a double bed. No one was on his side anymore. He could see the morning light tried to penetrate the window pane but was blocked by a curtain. He turned around to see the clock and greeted by the back of Aurel before it was covered by a shirt that didn’t block her butt. She turned her back to notice him waking up.

  “Good morning, darling,” she greeted him as she gave her a brief peck on his lips.

  “Good morning.” He responded after the peck. Bashfully, he asked, “Was I good?”

  She choked as she heard the question. “There is no need to ask that question.”

  His face redden. It was his first time, he didn’t know what kind of talk people have after sex so he tried to just throw any question that comes to his mind.

  “Although,” suddenly her face was right beside him. Her mouth is breathing at his earlobe, “I would love to do it again.”

  He froze there didn’t know what to say.

  “Another time.”

  His eyes slowly open, revealing his room in the cottage and Danith shaking him to wake up. “It’s our turn.”

  “Alright, you can go ahead. I’ll catch up in a sec.”

  “I’ll wait on the roof.”

  He sat on his bed wondering why did he just remembered memories from his old life. A very special one at that. He didn’t want to keep her waiting so he went in front of the house. The cold instantly hit his bones. He looked up at the roof, she was sitting there. He called out to her. Noticing him, she conjured a wind magic. It lifted him up to the roof where he would then sit along side her and a magical wands that generate heat.

  “Huh, it could be used like that.” He murmured upon the use of her wind magic. Because the night is quiet, she also heard that.

  “Is it really that fascinating?” she asked.

  “Yeah. There is no such thing as magic where I come from.”

  “Then how did you able to conjure a blade?”

  “That’s a perk of being transported I guess.”

  “I see.”

  They went on to sat against each other’s back to cover more area. The moon was only able to provide that much of light, not enough to penetrate the woods. Having to cover more area is the best thing they could do.

  “Danith, there are a few question I wanted to ask. Two, exactly.”

  “Hm? Shoot away.”

  He remembered when she was having a breakdown, she mentioned that she grew up and spent most time in the Great Juva Forest and her hometown. He was curious about why she was in the forest near the city.

  “I guess there is no harm in telling this story.”

  She was on a pursuit to retrieve some kidnapped children, one of them is the child of village elders, from a village near the forest entry. She couldn’t catch up in time. They formed a rescue team to retrieve them before they arrived at the city of Caro.

  The task was pretty much successful. They were able to retrieve the children but in order for them to escape, her companion and herself stayed behind. They were able to hold them long enough. However, they stayed too long that the kidnapper was able to call for help. The slimmest chance to escape was to have a diversion.

  “And that’s where you comes in.”

  It was a fairly standard story. He didn’t know what to expect. “Well, that was a pretty interesting story.” He wondered if he should ask the other question first but he asked right away, “The other question—”

  “Can wait,” she cut him off calmly. “There’s a goblin scout hiding in the bushes, south,” she reported as if there was nothing wrong.

  “Is there? Should we snuff him out?”

  “Silently. I can use my wind gale to cut his head off.”

  “I wanna try something. Similar to how I defend you against goblin last time, but this time for offense.”

  “Go for it then.”

  He followed Danith’s direction. After pin pointing the scout’s location he conjured a blade that would swing horizontally to cut its head.

  But the goblin noticed. As it turn it’s head around, a wind slashed the goblin’s head off cleanly along a third of the top of the bush. The goblin’s body fell down, blood gushing out from it’s neck while the head rolled away.

  “Thanks for covering me,” Vane sighed in relief.

  “You’re gonna need more practice.”

  “You are really good at spotting them.”

  “We elves live in the forest, we are just taught to be aware of our surrounding. It’s ingrained in our lifestyle,” she may have boasted a bit although Vane can never know with elves. “So, what was the last question?”

  “You mentioned something about that human-being is not native to this world. Mind to elaborate?”

  The sentence is pretty much self explanatory. Human were not the resident of this world originally. To explain further, she noted that there was only elves, beastfolk, and dwarves living in this world before something happened and human was brought upon this world.

  That is pretty much the summary. It would take a whole epic to explain the history of the world. There would be a better time and place for them to talk about that subject. She told him that most of the stories she knows comes from the elder in her village.

  The rest of the night went smoothly. They didn’t talk that much, only occasional chit-chat to break the ice until the sun showed itself up. They woke up the rest of the party before finally continuing their journey to Selen town.